Snorkel tube burner construction and method of making the same

ABSTRACT

A pilot burner having a tubular inlet for receiving fuel from a source thereof and having an outlet for issuing the fuel therefrom to be burned adjacent such outlet. A conduit is coupled to the inlet for directing the fuel from the source thereof to the inlet. A snorkel tube having an air inlet end and a closed end has an opening passing transversely through the closed end thereof and telescopically receiving the tubular inlet whereby the closed end of the tube is disposed between the burner and the conduit. The tubular inlet has an aperture for interconnecting the interior of the snorkel tube with the interior of the inlet so that air from the snorkel tube mixes with the fuel in the burner before being issued out of the outlet.

United States Patent 1191 1111 3,814,077 1451 June 4,1974

[ SNORKEL TUBE BURNER CONSTRUCTION AND METHOD OF MAKING THE SAME [75] Inventor: Fred Riehl, Greensburg, Pa.

[73] Assignee: Robertshaw Controls Company,

Richmond, Va.

[221 Filed: Feb.17,l972 21 Appl. No; 227,134

[52] US. Cl. 126/39 E, 431/354 [51] Int. Cl. F24c 3/10 [58] Field of Search 285/161, 158, 192,206

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,594,561 4/1952' Huck 285/192 2,741,302 4/l956 Kile 431/80 3,376,862 4/l968 Riehl 126/273 R 3,510,240 5/1970 Rhinehart ..431/354 3,645,248

Kemp 126/39 E Primary ExaminerWilliam F. O'Dea Assistant Examiner-Paul Devinsky Attorney, Agent, or Firm-candor, Candor & Tassone [571 ABSTRACT A pilot burner having a tubular inlet for receiving fuel from a source thereof and having an outlet for issuing the fuel therefrom to be burned adjacent such outlet.

A conduit is coupled to the inlet for directing thefuel from the source thereof to the inlet. A snorkel tube having an air inlet end and a closed end has an open-- ing passing transversely through the closed end thereof and telescopically receiving the tubular inlet whereby the closed end of the tube is disposed between the burner and the conduit. The tubular inlet has an aperture for interconnecting the interior of the snorkel tube with the interior of the inlet so that air from the snorkel tube mixes with the fuel in the burner before being issued out of the outlet.

10 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures PATENTEUJUN 41914 I sum 1 tr 2 BURNER BURNER FIG.1

This invention relates to an improved burner construction having means for readily interconnecting to an air snorkel tube, if desired, and also relates to a method of making such a burner construction or the I like.

It is well known from applicants prior US. Pat. Nos. 3,376,862 and 3,561,896, that a pilot burner can be provided for a double burner, single oven cavity fuel control system with such pilot burner being mounted adjacent the main broil burner which is disposed in the top of the single cavity oven that also contains a lower bake burner. Such broil pilot burner can be supplied with uncontaminated air through a snorkel tube that has its air inlet disposed below the bake burner. In this manner, the broil pilot burner can remain lit and be supplied with sufficient air for continuous burning thereof even though the bake burner is operating and causing combustion products to surround the pilot burner which would normally cause a flame outage thereof due to the starvation of air at the primary air intake of the broil: pilot burner if it were not for the clean air being supplied bythe snorkel tube to such primary air intake;

However, it has been found according to the teachings of this invention that such prior pilot burner constructions'required unique adapters for interconnecting the snorkel tube thereto so that such prior pilot burner constructions couldnot be utilized without such snor kel tubes whereby such pilot burner constructions could never be utilized for situations where snorkel tubeswere not necessary or practical, such as for the pilot burner .rneans for the bake burner of such a doubleburneroven or thelike.

Therefore, it' is a feature of this invention to provide an improved burner construction that readily permits the same to be effectively utilized with or without an air supplying snorkel tube.

In particular-,one embodiment of this invention provides a burner means havinga tubular inlet means for receivingfuel from a source thereof and having an outlet means for issuing the fuel therefrom to be burned adjacent the outlet means. A conduit means is adapted to be coupled to the tubular inlet means for directing the fuel from the source thereof to the inlet means of the burner means. Such structure can be utilized with or without the snorkel tube of this invention. The snorkel tube of this invention has an air inlet end and a closed end provided with opening means passing transversely therethrough for telescopically receiving the tubular inlet means of the burner means therethrough so as to be disposed between the burner means and the conduit means.- The tubular inlet means has a primary air intake aperture meanspassing transversely therethrough and interconnects theinterior of the snorkel tube with the interior of the inlet means so that air from the snorkel tube can mix with fuel in the burner means before being issued out of the outlet means. Such aperture means can be utilized for supplyingprimary air.

when the snorkel tube is .,not utilized so that such burner construction can be utilized without the snorkel tube, as desired; I

Therefore, it isan object of this invention to provide an improved burner construction having one or more of the novel features set forth above or hereinafter shown or described. Another object of this invention is to provide an im proved method for making such a burner construction or thelike. I

Other objects, uses and advantages of this invention are apparent from a reading of this description which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings forming a part thereof and wherein FIG. 1 is a fragmentary, broken-away view of the oven of a cooking apparatus utilizing the improved burner construction of this invention. 7

FIG. 2 is an enlarged, fragmentary, top view of the burner construction utilized in the oven of FIG. 1. FIG. 3 is a fragmentary side view of the burner construction of FIG. 2with a portion thereof shown in cross section. M

FIG. 4 is an exploded, fragmentary view of the various parts of the burner construction of this invention.

While the various features of this invention are hereinafter described and illustrated as being particularly adapted for providing a pilot burner means for a main broil burner of a single cavity double burner oven of a cooking apparatus, it is to be understood that the various features of this'invention can be utilized singly or in any combination thereof to provide burner constructions for other devices as desired. v Therefore, this invention is not to be limited to only the embodiments illustrated in the-drawings, because the drawings aremerely utilized to illustrate oneof the wide variety of uses of this invention.

Referring now toFlG. l, the improved burner construction of this invention is generally indicated by the reference numeral 10 and is utilized in an oven cavity 11 of a cooking apparatus 12 that has a frame means 13 defining the oven cavity 11 and carrying an upper broil burner 14 and a lower bake burner 15.

From applicant's prior mentioned issued US. Pat. Nos, 3,376,862 and 3,561,896, it is known that the combustion products from the bake burner 15 when the same is utilized for a baking operation will snuff out the pilot burner means 10 for the broil burner 14 if the same were not supplied uncontaminated air through a snorkel tube, such as the snorkel tube 16 of this invention which has its lower open end 17 disposed below the bake burner 15 or in any other desired location where uncontaminated air can enter the inlet end 17 of the snorkel tube 16 and be directed to the pilot burner means 10 atthe upper end 18 of the snorkel tube 16 in a manner hereinafter described.

The pilot burner construction 10 of this invention is best illustrated in FIGS. 2-4 and comprises a tubular burner member 19 having a tubular inlet means 20 of substantiallycylindrical configuration and being exter-' g to the inlet means 20 of the burner tube 19, the outlet end 25 being telescoped within a passage means 26 passing through the'tubular inlet means 20 of the burner 19 when the conduit 24 is coupled thereto by the coupling member 23 in a manner hereinafter described.

The tubular burner 19 has an outlet end 27 for issuing the fuel therefrom to be burned adjacent thereto with a small standby flame projecting through an opening 28 in a flame shield 29 carried at the outer end 27 of the tubular burner 19 or with-a larger ignition flame at the opening 28 and a heater flame passing out through an opening 30 in the flame shield 29 depending upon the flow rate of fuel passing through the burner construction through the conduit means 24 for the purposes fully set forth in the aforementioned United States patents. Thus, it is to be understood that the pilot burner means 10 of this invention can be utilized for the purpose of having a continuously burning flame at the outlet end 27 thereof which, when utilized for ignition purposes, will be increased in size by an increased flow rate of fuel to the pilot burner 10 so as to provide a larger flamefor ignition purposes, such as for igniting fuel issuing from the broil burner 14 when the operator initially turns the control device of the apparatus 12 to a broil" position.

In order to supply primary air tothe flow of fuel pass ing through the tubular burner 19 of the burner construction 10, the tubular inlet means has an aperture "31 passing transversely therethrough with the aperture 'fueland primaryair'therein so that when the fuel-air mixture issues'from the outlet end 27, the fuel-air mixture will be in the proper air-to-fuel ratio for desired burning characteristics regardless of whether or not advverse combustion products are surrounding the outlet 4 end. 27 of-thepilot burner 10.

' Thus, the burner construction 10 of this invention can be utilized without the snorkel tube 16 of this invention as the coupling member 23 can couple the fuel source conduit means 16 thereto in a manner now to be described. I

v The coupling member 23 is so constructed and arranged that the closed end '32 thereof has an opening 33 passingtherethrough which loosely receives the outlet end of the conduit 24 therethrough. However, the outlet end 25 of the conduit 24 has an outwardly directed annular abutment 34 or other desired means formed thereon so as to prevent the tube 24 from pulling out of the opening 33 to the left in FIG. 3. Thus, as the coupling member 23 is being threaded onto the threads 21 of the inlet end '20 of the tubular burner 19, the same carries the conduit 24 therewith in the manner illustrated in FIG. 3 to couple the same to the tubular inlet means 20. Since the coupling member 23 is'not initially fixed to the conduit means 24, the same can be readily rotated to cause the threading operation onto the inlet means 20 .of the burner tube 19 without turning the burner tube 19 or the conduit 24. Thereafter,

as illustrated. For example, such material 35 could be brazing material, heat resistant epoxy compount, etc.

v facing a similar flat annular shoulder38defined at the open end of the coupling member 23. The enlargement 36 of the inlet means 20 of the tubular burner 19 is formed adjacent a bracket member 39 carried by the tubular member 19 and having suitable mounting openings 40 and slots 41 formed therein for mounting the burner construction 10 to the frame means 13 of the cooking apparatus 12 in a conventional manner for igniting the broil burner 14.

The snorkel tube 16 of this invention has its upper end 18 closed by merely a crimping together of the opposed wall portions 42 and 43of the tubular member 16 as illustrated in FIG. 4 so as to close the end 18 of the tube 16. Of course, it is to be understood that the end 18 of the tube 16 can be closed in any desiredman ner.

The closed end 18 has the wall portions 42 and 43 substantially flattened on opposite'sides thereof to define substantially flat and parallel wall portions 44 and 45 respectively having circular openings 46 and 47 passing transversely therethrough and in aligned relation with each other..The openings 46 and 47 are of a v circular configuration so as to permit the closed end 18 of the snorkel tube 16 to be telescoped onto the tubular inlet means 20 of the burner tube 19 in the manner il lustrated in FIG. 3 with the flat wall portion 44 being disposed in abutting relation against the annular shoulceive primary air through the snorkeltube 1 6 and into der 37 of the inlet means 20. After the snorkel tube 16 has its closed end 18 telescoped onto the inlet, means 20 ofthe burner 19 in the manner illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3, the coupling member 23 is then utilized to couple the conduit 24 to the inlet means 20- in the manner previously described.;lt can be seenthat when the coupling member 23 is threaded on the threads 21 of the inlet means 20 for its coupling purpose, the annular shoulder 38 thereof is adapted to compact against the flat wall portion 45-of the closed end 18of the snorkel tube 16 to compact the same in a stacked relation between the annular shoulders 37. and 38 in the manner illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3. i

It is to be understood that before the coupling'me'mber 23 completely compacts and stacks the closed end l8 of the snorkel tube 16 between the annular shoulde'rs 37 and 38, the snorkel tube 16 can be rotated to any desired angle on the tubular inlet means 20 as long as the tube 16 is in' communication with the aperture 31 and be held in such rotational position when the coupling member 23 firmly compacts the closed end 18 between the annular shoulders 37'and 38 to not only secure the snorkel tube 16 to the burner construction tube 16 relative thereto.

When the snorkel tube 16 has its closed end 18 compacted between the shoulders 37 and 38 in the manner illustrated in FIG. 3, it can be seen that the aperture 31 in the tubular inlet means '20 generally faces in a direction away from *theclosed end 18 so as to readily rethe passage 26 'for the reasons previously set forth whereby fresh or uncontaminated air will be supplied to the pilot burner means 19 even though the bake burner means is operating in the oven 11.

Therefore, it can be seen that this invention provides an improved burner means which can be utilized with or without a snorkel tube so that the burner means can be utilized for purposes other than a snorkel tube arrangement. For example, the pilot burner means for the bake burner 15 of the cooking apparatus12 of FIG. 1 can be a burner construction 10 of this invention without a snorkel tube 16 thereon whereas the snorkel tube 16 is utilized with the burner construction 10 for the broil burner 14.

Thus, it can be seen that this invention not only provides an improved burner construction, but also this invention provides. an improved method of making such a burner construction or the like.

While the form of the invention now preferred has been disclosed as required by the Patent Statute, other forms may be utilized all coming within the scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In combination, a burner means having a tubular inlet means for receiving fuel from asource thereof and having an outlet means for issuing said fuel therefrom to be burned adjacent said outlet means, a conduit means coupled to said inlet means for directing said fuel from said source thereof to said inlet means, and a snorkel tube having an air inlet end and a closed end, said closed end having an opening means passing transversely therethrough and receiving said tubular inlet means therethrough so as to be disposed between said burner means and said conduit means, said inlet means having aperture means for interconnecting the interior of said snorkel tubewith the interior of said inlet means so that air from said snorkel tube can mix with said fuel in said burner meansbefore being issued out of said outlet means, said conduit means having a shoulder means, said burner means having a shoulder means adjacent said inlet means thereof, said closed end of said snorkel tube being stacked between said shoulder means whereby said snorkel tube is fixed to said burner means and said conduit means.

2. A combination as set forth in claim 1 wherein said snorkel tube has opposed flat portions surrounding said opening means thereof, said shoulder means having flat surfaces respectively engaging said flat portions of said closed end of said snorkel tube.

3. A combination as set forth in claim 1 wherein said shoulder means of said conduit means comprises a coupling member for securing said conduit means to said inlet means of said burner means.

4. A combination as set forth in claim 3 wherein said coupling member is threadedly secured to said inlet means.

5. A method for making a burner construction comprising the steps of providing a burner means having a tubular, inletmeans for receiving fuel from a source thereof and having an outlet means for issuing said fuel therefrom to be burned adjacent said outlet means,

coupling a conduit means to said inlet means for directing said fuel from said source thereof to said inlet means, providing a snorkel tube having an air inlet end and a closed end, forming opening means throughsaid closed end with said opening means passing trans-' versely therethrough, telescoping said tubular inlet means through said opening means so that said closed end is disposed between said burner means and said tube between said burner means andsaid conduit means to fix said snorkel tube thereto.

6. A method as set forth in claim 5 wherein said conduit means has a shoulder means and said burner means has a shoulder means adjacent said inlet means thereof, said step of stacking said closed end of said snorkel tube comprising the step of stacking said'closed end of said snorkel tube between said shoulder means. i

,7. A method as set forth in claim 6 and-including the steps of providing said snorkel tube with opposed flat portions surrounding said opening means thereof, providing said shoulder means with flat surfaces for respectively engaging said flat portions of said closed end of said snorkel tube when said closed end is stacked therebe'tween.

8. A method as set forth in claim 6 wherein said shoulder means of said conduit means comprises a coupling member, and including the stepof securing said conduit means to said inlet means of said burner means with said coupling member.

9. A method as set forth in claim 8 wherein said securing step includes the step of threadedly securing said coupling member to said inlet means.

10. In combination, a burner means having an inlet means for receiving fuel from a source thereof and having an outlet means for issuing said fueltherefrom to be burned adjacent said outlet means, said burner means having ashoulder means adjacent said inlet means thereof, and a conduit means having a coupling means coupling said conduit means to said inlet means for directing said fuel from said source thereof to said inlet means, said burner means having an air intake means for supplying primary air to said burner means, said coupling means and said inlet means being so constructed and arranged that the same are adapted to couple a snorkel tube to said burner means in stacked relation between said shoulder means of said burner means and said coupling means so as to fix said snorkel tube thereto with said tube being in fluid communica tion with said air intake means and without auxiliary adaptors for said snorkel tube. 

1. In combination, a burNer means having a tubular inlet means for receiving fuel from a source thereof and having an outlet means for issuing said fuel therefrom to be burned adjacent said outlet means, a conduit means coupled to said inlet means for directing said fuel from said source thereof to said inlet means, and a snorkel tube having an air inlet end and a closed end, said closed end having an opening means passing transversely therethrough and receiving said tubular inlet means therethrough so as to be disposed between said burner means and said conduit means, said inlet means having aperture means for interconnecting the interior of said snorkel tube with the interior of said inlet means so that air from said snorkel tube can mix with said fuel in said burner means before being issued out of said outlet means, said conduit means having a shoulder means, said burner means having a shoulder means adjacent said inlet means thereof, said closed end of said snorkel tube being stacked between said shoulder means whereby said snorkel tube is fixed to said burner means and said conduit means.
 2. A combination as set forth in claim 1 wherein said snorkel tube has opposed flat portions surrounding said opening means thereof, said shoulder means having flat surfaces respectively engaging said flat portions of said closed end of said snorkel tube.
 3. A combination as set forth in claim 1 wherein said shoulder means of said conduit means comprises a coupling member for securing said conduit means to said inlet means of said burner means.
 4. A combination as set forth in claim 3 wherein said coupling member is threadedly secured to said inlet means.
 5. A method for making a burner construction comprising the steps of providing a burner means having a tubular inlet means for receiving fuel from a source thereof and having an outlet means for issuing said fuel therefrom to be burned adjacent said outlet means, coupling a conduit means to said inlet means for directing said fuel from said source thereof to said inlet means, providing a snorkel tube having an air inlet end and a closed end, forming opening means through said closed end with said opening means passing transversely therethrough, telescoping said tubular inlet means through said opening means so that said closed end is disposed between said burner means and said conduit means, forming aperture means in said tubular inlet means for interconnecting the interior of said snorkel tube with the interior of said inlet means so that air from said snorkel tube can mix with said fuel in said burner means before being issued out of said outlet means, and stacking said closed end of said snorkel tube between said burner means and said conduit means to fix said snorkel tube thereto.
 6. A method as set forth in claim 5 wherein said conduit means has a shoulder means and said burner means has a shoulder means adjacent said inlet means thereof, said step of stacking said closed end of said snorkel tube comprising the step of stacking said closed end of said snorkel tube between said shoulder means.
 7. A method as set forth in claim 6 and including the steps of providing said snorkel tube with opposed flat portions surrounding said opening means thereof, providing said shoulder means with flat surfaces for respectively engaging said flat portions of said closed end of said snorkel tube when said closed end is stacked therebetween.
 8. A method as set forth in claim 6 wherein said shoulder means of said conduit means comprises a coupling member, and including the step of securing said conduit means to said inlet means of said burner means with said coupling member.
 9. A method as set forth in claim 8 wherein said securing step includes the step of threadedly securing said coupling member to said inlet means.
 10. In combination, a burner means having an inlet means for receiving fuel from a source thereof and having an outlet means for issuing said fuel therefrom to be burned adjacent said outlet means, said burner means having a shoulder meaNs adjacent said inlet means thereof, and a conduit means having a coupling means coupling said conduit means to said inlet means for directing said fuel from said source thereof to said inlet means, said burner means having an air intake means for supplying primary air to said burner means, said coupling means and said inlet means being so constructed and arranged that the same are adapted to couple a snorkel tube to said burner means in stacked relation between said shoulder means of said burner means and said coupling means so as to fix said snorkel tube thereto with said tube being in fluid communication with said air intake means and without auxiliary adaptors for said snorkel tube. 